Many people have expressed their
strong reservations about a Government takeover of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. But
there are good reasons to believe that a Government takeover would be far
better than the present administration of the Ashram.
The
Auroville Example
Let me first point out the living
example of Auroville where things are certainly much better off with a Govt
administrator than the present state of affairs at the Ashram from the point of
view of transparency, accountability and democracy. It is true that it would
have been better had there been no government intervention even in Auroville,
but this is merely a speculation of not much use now. The speculation also
presupposes ideal conditions and does not take into account the human factors
that made the takeover inevitable. The then management of Auroville refused to
listen to the demands of the Aurovillians and the latter had no other recourse
left but to appeal to the Government. Whose fault was it? Will the Aurovillians
now say that they should not have fought for their rights and that they should
have submitted themselves silently to the rule of Sri Aurobindo Society?
A similar situation has developed in
Sri Aurobindo Ashram with perhaps more complications than in the case of
Auroville. The administrative degeneration of the Ashram Trust over the last 15
years was bound to invite an intervention of the Government, and if this
happens, would it be the fault of the Ashramites and devotees who have
protested against the Trustees? Certainly not! The Ashram Trustees will be held
accountable for the Govt takeover and not the devotees and inmates who have
gone against them. In fact, the Trustees have themselves declared that they
would rather give away the Ashram to the Government rather than negotiate with
those who are against them. When such is their attitude, there is no other
alternative left but to ask for the intervention of the Govt and hope for the
best. After all, a Govt officer, with all his defects, would not summarily
throw out people from their jobs as the Trustees have recently done in the case
of R.Y. Despande, Radhikaranjan Das, Niranjan Naik and Vishnu Lalit. Moral
sense will also prevail in handling cases of sexual molestation such as
that of Mamata Satpathy, who was shown the door because she was the unfortunate
victim and did not stop beseeching the Trustees for justice. Or that of Shobha
Rani, who committed suicide after leaving a note implicating eight members of
the Ashram for sexual harassment and eve teasing. The very fact that the present
Ashram lawyer Nirmal Swain figures in this list should be an eye opener on how
the Ashram Trust functions. Finally, with regard to
medical negligence leading to death, the recent case of Shanti Sinha will be
taken with utmost gravity by any Govt administrator. These are only a few of
the many examples that can be given to show the necessity of a third party,
without any parti pris, to take care
of the administration of the Ashram.
The
Peter Heehs Controversy
Of late the Ashram Trustees have been
desperately trying to divert public attention from their own mismanagement of
the Ashram to the Peter Heehs controversy. It is true that all the Ashramites
were angry at the way the Trust handled the controversy over the book and
protected Peter Heehs. But this does not mean that Peter Heehs was the cause of
the present crisis. The writing of such a denigrating book on Sri Aurobindo in
his own Ashram is rather the ultimate symptom than the cause of the present
malady, which has deeper roots in the collective psyche of the Ashram. The
obvious cause of the present situation is the lack of spiritual maturity in
those who presently rule the Ashram. I say “rule” because the Trustees
literally rule like kings with no checks and balances to control their whims
and fancies, and they cannot be questioned at all by the community when something
goes seriously wrong. In other words, absolute power coupled with a total lack
of spiritual maturity has created the present mess! Absolute power in the hands
of the Mother was acceptable to all because She could never misuse her power,
but absolute power in the hands of Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee, will
bring down the institution because of his arrogance and vengefulness. Thus the
Peter Heehs affair became a controversy not only because of the derogatory
content of the book, but more because of the way Manoj Das Gupta handled the
issue – it is actually he who created the controversy. One statement by him to
the Press condemning the book would have nipped the problem in the bud and the
aggrieved disciples and devotees would have been satisfied. The fact that he
consistently refused to do so shows that there was something far more wrong
with him than with Peter Heehs.
The readers should be made aware that
the Peter Heehs issue came up in August 2008. Since then there has been a steep
decline in morals and a rising curve of corruption with the active or tacit
support of the Trustees. The Mamata Satpathy molestation case happened in May
2010, the Shanti Sinha case of death due to medical negligence in September
2012, the eviction of Ambika, a popular physical education instructor, from the
Ashram on a groundless allegation of molestation happened in 2009, and a shady property
deal involving the exchange of an Ashram house was signed in 2011 by the son of
Dr. Dilip Datta, Trustee in charge of medical services of the Ashram. All these
events happened after the Peter Heehs controversy; so by no stretch of
imagination can they be attributed to it.
Going a little farther back into the
past, what about the Nikhil Virani case of sex with minor students of the
Ashram School (which, by the way, is technically considered rape even if it is
consensual); the complaint of paedophilia against two Ashramites signed by
several teachers and inmates of the Ashram; the prostitution going on in some
of the Ashram guest houses; the forged document by which the Ashram Trust
bought the Raghavan House, which resulted in an arrest warrant on Manoj Das
Gupta so that he had to apply for anticipatory bail; and the number of suicides
that took place in the last decade? How are the above events connected with the
Peter Heehs issue? These unfortunate events rather show a deeper malady, that
of condoning and allowing every kind of crime in the name of spirituality.
There is also a remarkably consistent pattern of behaviour evinced by the
Trustees over the last 15 years, especially by Manoj Das Gupta the Managing
Trustee – that of ruthlessly punishing the victim and protecting the culprit.
There are two knee-jerk reactions from
the supporters of the Trustees to these allegations. The less brainy, who are
generally more vocal, have simply denied them as if there was no basis at all
for even an enquiry into them. The answer to these foot soldiers of the Trust
is how do they explain away the FIRs that have been registered at various
police stations, the umpteen number of cases that have been filed in the Court,
the ugly reports in local Tamil newspapers, and the numerous complaints that
have been written by long-standing inmates of the Ashram to various Govt
agencies. If all these are false, then you might as well say that the Ashram
Trust stands above the laws of the land, which is exactly what a group of
ladies actually conveyed to a fact-finding commission that recently visited
Puducherry! The team of human rights activists was shocked to hear from these
ladies (who spoke in defence of the Trustees) that moral rules don’t apply in a
spiritual society such as the Ashram community. Now this is a dangerously
decontextualised truth! Sri Aurobindo did say that moral rules don’t apply to a
spiritual man, but he did not recommend that to normal people who live in the ordinary
consciousness and for whom moral rules are absolutely necessary. Will these
ladies then justify crime such as molestation, rape and paedophilia as part of
spirituality? Will they make the same statement when their own sisters or
children close to them are manhandled and molested? It is precisely this
hypocritical attitude that has landed the present Trustees into deep trouble.
It is high time therefore that a level headed, ordinary, intelligent, moral man
is given the reins of the Ashram administration before the Ashram community
collapses into total disorder.
Unjustified Fear
of a Govt Intervention
There is another false notion that is
being deliberately floated about by the Trustees for their own survival. It is
the fear that a Govt intervention will deprive the Ashramites of their daily
necessities, which is ridiculous! As a matter of fact, the daily necessities of
life will be more assured to the Ashramites under the Govt than in the present
regime of the Trustees. Now the Ashramites dare not say a word against the
Trustees because of the innate fear of being deprived of their basic
facilities. Such a situation can never arise in a Govt controlled institution because
the administrators will follow rules and procedures unlike the Trustees who
simply depend on their likes and dislikes. The administrators also keep
changing to avoid any entrenching of selfish interests and one can always
appeal to higher authorities during their term. In the present situation, the
Trustees are all powerful and they cannot be questioned by virtue of an
outdated Trust Deed which was basically meant to give full powers to the Mother
and not to them. It is this dictatorial disposition of the Trustees that has to
be changed to make way for a new order in the Ashram.
There is of course a strong lobby of
Ashramites who would like the present autocratic structure to continue, but
this is purely because of vested interests. In their case, as long as the
present Trustees are there, they will be favoured by them and enjoy various material
benefits such as good housing, positions of power, special privileges and allowances,
and costly medical treatment. There is
often a deal between the Trustees and some of the departmental heads of the
Ashram by which the Trustees turn a blind eye to the corrupt practices of the
latter provided they support them. This is the sorry state of affairs at Sri
Aurobindo Ashram.
The last apprehension is with regard to
what will happen to the Samadhi and the sacred writings and objects of Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother. But why should the change of guard affect the Samadhi
and the spiritual force that is so palpable in the Ashram main building? I
thought Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s force is independent of all
administrative structures. Certainly, their spiritual force is not going to be
diluted by demoting Manoj Das Gupta to the rank of an ordinary Ashramite from
his high pedestal of power. On the contrary, it will do a lot of good, for then more inmates of the Ashram will be able to participate
in the decision making process of the Ashram.
Finally, all said and done, even if
the Ashram Trust gets fully exonerated and those who have raised their voices
against it are completely silenced, a change of administrative structure is
badly needed. Forty years have passed since the Mother left her physical body
in November 1973. Nobody has filled or will ever be able to fill the spiritual
vacuum caused by her physical absence. Times have also changed and the yogic
motivation of the present generation of inmates of the Ashram is doubtful.
Therefore a rethinking of the aims and values of the Ashram in the present
context where hardly anyone is ready for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s Yoga is
unavoidable, and has to be done one day or the other. The bull has to be taken
by the horns and the Ashram community (with the help of other devotees,
disciples, well-wishers along with local and central Govt officials) should sit
in a spirit of secular and spiritual participation to create the framework of a
new life on the lines of what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have envisaged for
the future of humanity. If the change cannot be brought about from within, then
it has to come from outside, or by a combination of both methods, one helping
the other. But sooner or later the change has to come!
Baikunth
Read also:
If the Trustees had nothing to fear or hide from an investigation as they claimed recently, why did they bring a stay in the High Court to stop the Pondy admin from probing their activities???
ReplyDeleteAn Ashramite:
ReplyDeleteI came across Baikunth's article of 19.8.2013 which mentions that some senior ladies of the Ashram (supporters of the Trustees) have told a team of Human Rights Activists that moral rules don't apply in a spiritual society such as the Ashram community. Have these senior ladies forgotten the Mother's message: "You can break moral rules only when you observe the Divine's law." Is the Ashram community (including these ladies and Trustees) observing the Divine Law? If that were the case, the present crisis would not have arisen. Their statement shows to what extent they gone have gone to protect the corrupt Trustees. They are actually making the Ashram a safe haven for all types of lower enjoyments which is not even possible in outside life!